Saturday, June 11, 2011

Where does your story begin? (Set the scene)I graduated college in the spring of 2009 and for 6 months attempted to find a job that was worthwhile. After thousands of resumes sent out and countless interviews with nothing to show for it, I decided I wanted to do something constructive with my time. Then the earthquake in Haiti hit and I decided I wanted to go down there to aid in relief efforts. But after calling many non-profits I learned that I needed background experience in Disaster Aid - which I didn't have. When I asked one of the organizations how I was supposed to get down to Haiti to help then, she simply replied, "Well you could always walk". That put the idea in my head that I could fundraise on my own and ended up planning and completing a 2,000 mile journey, where I walked from Minneapolis, MN to Miami, FL in 100 days, raising nearly $40,000 for Action Against Hunger, a non-profit who was supplying disaster relief in Haiti.

Within days of creating my walk's fan page on Facebook, I had thousands of followers. During the 100 days that I walked across the country I gained nearly 12,000 followers, which helped me spread the word about my cause. A lot of the donations that I raised for Haiti came from those Facebook followers. Facebook also allowed me to better plan my walking route. People saw that I would be walking through their town and messaged me, inviting me for dinner as I passed through or even giving me a place to sleep for the night. Of the 100 nights during my walk, I spent more than 80 nights with families I had never met, a lot of them hearing about me through Facebook.

If the story doesn't end there: Did this event spread to impact the lives of other people?It definitely did! In 3 months my friends, family and Facebook followers raised nearly $40,000 dollars for Haiti! Those donations helped feed and water men, women and children in Haiti. I just couldn't believe so many people could come together and make such a difference for others who they had never even met before. LINK